…And I am a digital girl.

A foray into the world of liveblogs

“Oh, liveblogging. What could be so difficult about that?” – me, one week ago.

Answer: a lot. Tonight was my first real foray into the world of liveblogging, and it was a learning experience.

This wasn’t my first time doing live coverage of a televised event, though it was my first attempt at doing it unbiased. Through my Twitter and GetGlue accounts, I often do commentary on my favourite television shows (Glee) and awards shows as they air. My comments have been featured in Storify stories, have been retweeted, and I often engage in discussions with others watching the shows at the same time.

I chose to cover the American Music Awards tonight, as it’s something that I’d be watching anyways and I know a lot of background about the artists and presenters. For the first half hour or so, I struggled. What was okay to write, and what wasn’t? What would count as biased, and would snarky comments get my media outlet in trouble? It was difficult for me, at least at first, to keep on top of things; a performer or presenter would come on, I’d open a new tab to go find some background on them to post or a video, and by the time I made it back the next person would be on stage. After a while, though, I began to get the hang of it, and let others’ Twitter comments and Instagrams speak what I would have otherwise wanted to write. I acted as more of an observer than a participant, and I’m okay with that. It was difficult at times; for instance, I’m a big One Direction fan, and wanted so badly to gush alongside other fans when they won awards. And I might have, a little. Overall, though, I showed self-restraint where I would have otherwise judged an event, and let the event itself do the talking.

The result, in my opinion, is a fairly entertaining read.

EDIT: I’d also like to mention how difficult it was to stay to the 90 minute blogging time! I was so into it by that point that I stuck around until the end of the show, like a real liveblogger would!